A/N: Rawr! Royal Dragon here! I finished Terra's and Aqua's story and finally working on Ven's! I love this game its so fun! Thank you guys for the reviews and favorites and follows they mean so much to me! I hope you enjoyed chapter 6 because here we go with chapter 7 enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own. Never have, never will.
Chapter 7: Rotting Flesh
How far were we? Not long I hoped I was starting to cramp up if Vampire's could cramp that was. We had been driving in silence for what seemed like hours, everyone was tense and waiting. Perhaps we were waiting to see if Sora was going to have another vision.
Roxas was asleep in the backseat with Cloud and Leon curled up in Cloud's arms. Demyx was looking out of the window quietly humming to himself, Zexion was reading the map and Sora had his head on Riku's shoulder. We had been silent for probably over an hour before Leon's head popped up his eyes wide.
"We need to stop!" He cried clambering to get to the front seat where I was.
"What's going on? Is Roxas ok?" I asked jerking the wheel to the left hard forcing the SUV back on track. I hadn't heard a peep from him in over an hour! It was frustrating no more like maddening. He was sleeping or so I thought what if he had quietly passed on in his sleep? No that wouldn't happen, I would know right? I would surely know if my Mate had died.
"I'm fine I just have to pee!" He whined moving around and doing what seemed to be attempting to free his arms from the covers.
Nodding I looked to the sides to see if I could find any signs pointing towards a fast food joint or gas station. "I wanna go to a rest stop! Please?" Roxas eyes were pleading as I looked back in the rear view mirror.
"Ok, ok." I responded looking at the green signs as we passed them until one indicated we were going to a rest stop. Five minutes later we had stopped and Leon was throwing the door open and carrying a bundled up Roxas in his hands to the nearest bathroom.
What the hell was going on?
Roxas POV
Of course we were in the women's bathroom! The mens bathroom just so happened to have one of those stupid yellow plastic signs up claiming that it was being cleaned. Pushing open the nearest pink stall I dropped to the linoleum floor which was soon stained with blood.
It had been coming on for sometime now and I couldn't hold it back anymore. The blood it had burned me, burned my throat more than just vomit. It was if it was eating straight through my esophagus. When I had to force the poison back the first time I knew it would be back but I wasn't sure how soon.
Crimson red, so red it was almost black. That was the poison, it was pungent forcing me to empty my stomach once again. Leon was doing his best to soothe me by rubbing my back but even he was affected by the smell. "Rox..." He coughed resting his head against my back.
Coughing again he quickly stood up and joined me in the next stall puking his guts out just as well.
Bang! Bang! "Roxas! Leon! Hey open up!" Axel yelled before he kicked at the door. "Leon! Open this fucking door!"
Someone was going to have to say something and right now I couldn't. Preferably before Axel kicked the door down. Standing up on unsteady legs I heard Leon make his way over to the door before sliding down. I tried to keep my retching as quietly as possible so that Axel wouldn't hear.
Vampire's ears were sharp, extremely sharp. Once I was finally done and sinking into a pool of my own blood and poison, Leon was finally talking.
"We're fine!" He panted as another harsh kick came to the door. Up, up I had to get up. I had to flush the toilet and wash my face. I had to be presentable when Axel finally kicked his way in. He had to know that I was ok, that I was fine.
Attempting to push myself up I fell straight back down into the poison whimpering as the smell was making me sick again. Forcing my arms to work I pulled myself up and wobbled over to the sink. The smell was clogging the room up I was surprised that Axel couldn't smell it from here. Vampire's didn't need to necessarily breathe but it was something that they're human side had done before they died.
It reminded them of humanity and plus it was natural and way more comfortable, at least that's what Axel told me. Sinking back down I took in a breath of air just as the door finally caved in.
Axel's face turned from complete rage to horrified. Sniffing the air he wrinkled his nose before rushing over and picking me up in his arms. "Roxas what the hell?"
Shaking my head I attempted to push out of his arms. "No, no I don't need help! No! Let go!" I whimpered. His arms were to strong and warm I couldn't push my way out of them.
"Roxas you're to weak let your Mate help you! That's why he's here." Leon growled trying to stand up on unsteady legs.
It wasn't until Cloud rushed in and swung Leon up in his arms bridal style did I finally relax in my Mate's arms. "Angel?" Axel whispered pressing his nose against mine. "What's going on? Why do you keep doing this? You won't let me in! What do I have to do to show you that you can trust me?" His voice was breaking towards the end.
"I'm sorry! I love you I swear I do! I just don't want you to see how bad its gotten... how hard it is to just open my eyes again. It's so hard, I can't hang on much longer Axel I really can't my body can't take it. This poison its so far in my system... The dialysis its not working anymore and it hasn't been for some time. I just didn't want to tell you I'm so sorry..." Tears poured down my eyes as I lifted weak hands to try and cup his face.
But I couldn't my arms were so heavy and my hands I couldn't feel them anymore. My fingers, fingers... fingers... feel them. No I couldn't feel, couldn't feel a thing. Black spots were coating my vision until I was gone, gone, gone and drifting. Drifting away far away until I was lying on my back, there were voices and my eyes were still open, I just couldn't see. My breathing was slowing down, slow, slow, slow until it was labored.
I could hear voices one in particular, red hair and bright green eyes. It was like looking at green acid they were cat like and his voice it was always rich and smooth like honey. He was always laughing and smiling and holding me but his name eluded me at the moment. He was calling to me, shouting really.
"Come back! ...leave me here... alone! Please... don't." It was broken. I didn't like hearing how broken it sounded how far away it was from me. "Roxas!" That was the last thing I heard before my eyes finally slipped closed.
Axel's POV
"Roxas! Roxas damn it wake up! Please don't leave me here alone! Come back to me!" I couldn't lose him to the darkness not again! "Roxas!" Sinking to the ground I buried my face in the crook of his neck and sobbed.
"Dude what the fuck is that smell?" Cloud complained. Looking up I saw Cloud gently lay Leon down on the ground and go into the first pink stall. "Axel... you need to see this."
Picking my blond Mate up and cradling him close in my arms I walked to where Cloud was standing. But not before wiping his face clean of the blood. His shirt I noticed looked tattered and I wondered why I would have packed a shirt with holes in it. I wasn't prepared though for what I saw.
Blackness, pure and utter blackness.
Blood dribbled out of the toilet and pooled on the cracked tiled floor. Smoke was wafting around the toilet and it looked like it was disintegrating the porcelain bowl. Even the tiles were cracking under the black blood that was seeping out.
"That's the poison isn't it?" Cloud asked to no one in particular. We just stood there until finally the toilet was no more and the black blood was flooding the floor. Rushing over Cloud picked up his lover as the blood pooled around our shoes.
"Shit Cloud run! Its eating through our shoes!" I cried rushing out of the bathroom with bare feet into the soft grass. Fuck that shit was painful and I quickly tried wiping my feet off in the soon deadening grass. The bood must have gotten on Roxas to quickly I unwraveled my Mate and tore the rest of the shirt off of him wiping him clean with the red blanket he was wrapped in.
It wasn't long before Cloud passed me and hopped into the van motioning me over. It was late at night and there wasn't anyone at the rest spot but at the same time if someone came over I didn't want to explain what was going on.
"Someone else needs to drive!" I called as I made a beeline for the open van. Demyx was the first to jump out and get into the drivers side without a word. Pulling out of the rest stop it wasn't long before we were bombarded with questions and I had a few of my own. But that could wait until someone handed me a damn shirt to cover my Mate up! Once he was finally covered and I had checked him thoroughly I glared at Leon.
"What the hell happened in there Leon?" I growled turning around in the seat I had taken from Demyx to face the now silent Dhampir.
"He knew it was coming... he didn't want to worry you Axel. I should have said something. He's been feeling sick recently but I didn't know that was going to happen. He just said he felt sick and asked me to have you guys stop at a rest stop. He loves you Axel he just doesn't like worrying you." Leon replied his voice soft.
"He feels like a burden to you." Sora whispered.
Looking over at Sora I raised my eyebrows. "You forget I can read emotions just as easily as I can see the past, present and future. Once I got those glimpses of what was going to happen to Roxas it became easier to read his emotions. He feels helpless Axel. He feels like a burden."
"He's not a burden to me he should know that by now. I thought I showed him that over and over how much I loved him. Why won't he tell me these things?" I pleaded tears slipping from my eyes.
"He's scared that you'll worry about him. He hasn't yet accepted the fact that someone loves him as much as you do. He will accept it though in time if he lives through this that is. The future is so uncertain and changes easily as it is not written in stone." A small hand reached out and the Dhampir cupped my face.
I would show Roxas how much I cared and that he could tell me everything. I knew some of this stemmed from when Cloud had turned us against each other. Before all of this ever happened though Roxas trusted me wholeheartedly. We never kept secrets from each other, we were always honest with each other. Most importantly though we loved each other.
"I'm sorry Axel." Leon whispered so low I wasn't sure I heard him.
"It's ok." I whispered leaning back in the seat cradling my Mate. "I love you Roxas." I whispered kissing his forehead.
"Guys I hate to interupt but we're close. We'll be there in about two hours. We won't be traveling with the SUV anymore so that means we'll have to hide it from sight until we can get the Blood Rose and get back. Take only what you need because we're not going to be coming back for at least another week." Zexion stated craning his neck around to look at all of us.
"The group is still lost from what I can tell or the blond female is putting my visions on repeat somehow. I can't see very much because everytime I try to get close she pushes me out." Sora piped up.
How I could only pray that they would still lost forever until I could find that Blood Rose. Roxas needed it desperately.
Those two hours flew by even in the silence. We had finally taken one of the many exits we passed and it wasn't long before we ended up on a long country road. That was the longest part taking about an hour before we finally reached the grassy plain and had to find a hiding spot for the car.
It took another hour to fully hide the car and make sure that we had everything we needed. I had taken a small duffel bag that I packed filled with Roxas clothes and Zexion packed a small medical kit leaving the dialysis machine behind in the trunk of the car.
"Are we ready?" Zexion asked looking at everyone in turn. Nodding we set off with only about three hours left of sunlight. "The good thing about this forest is that it's heavily shaded so its always going to look like night around here. Our bodies of course will tell us when its time to settle down but until then we'll keep moving."
"How long will it take us to find the Rose?" Riku asked he had been unusually quiet this whole time.
"About three and half days or shorter depending on how far we can walk and if we don't get lost. I have the map that Luxord left with this book so this should really help in finding the Blood Rose." Zexion responded.
Two hours in we were all starting to get extremely tired. We made camp for the night on the soft forest floor. We didn't need to build a fire there was no use in bringing attention to ourselves. I had brought a small sleeping bag to wrap Roxas in but once I saw him start shivering I couldn't stop myself from crawling in beside him.
"Rest Roxas. I love you my sweet Angel." I whispered kissing those plump lips. That night I dreamed of the black blood, I dreamed that it swallowed him up and tore his flesh off of him as he slept. There was nothing I could do, I was trapped in my own personal hell watching as it lapped at his body the pieces of his skin falling off until there was nothing but his skeleton showing.
Over and over I watched as his skin fell off each time I was left sobbing and screaming his name until I finally woke myself from the hellish nightmare. It was about noon that much I could tell but the forest didn't look any different. Looking around I saw Demyx curled up next to Zexion, his head on the smaller male's chest while Sora was completely lying on top of Riku snoring.
Hearing a soft moan I looked over to see Cloud lying on top of Leon. Biting his neck Leon arched his back moaning and threading his fingers through Leon's hair. "Th- the- there sleeping!" Leon moaned as Cloud finally pulled his shirt off.
"Mmm I know." Cloud growled nipping his neck until his tongue circled around a dusk nipple.
"We... we sh-sh- shouldn't!" Leon groaned as Cloud's hands roamed over his body lowering until it dipped in the waistband of his jeans.
Closing my eyes I tried to let sleep over take me so that I didn't have to watch Roxas brother and his Mate having sex. It wasn't long before I was thankfully asleep, the nightmare had changed and instead I didn't dream. It was just a restless sleep.
A/N: Well there we go chapter 7 done! Chapter 8 will be on its way review and let me know what you think it won't be many more chapters and Kiss of Death will be over. Sad day, well anyway I hoped you enjoy chapter 7! And click that review button I need some love! I'll see everyone in chapter 8!
xoxo Royal